American Fathers 4Change with a mission of helping to bring awareness that by increasing the proportion of children growing up with involved, responsible, and committed fathers it will improve the well being of children.

"The man as he converses is the lover; silent, he is the husband." ~ Honore de Balzac

Thursday

Exposé is defined ~

1. The act or an instance of bringing a scandal, crime, etc., to public notice 2. (Communication Arts / Journalism & Publishing) an article, book, or statement that discloses a scandal, crime, etc.

RumpoleatJUSTICE BUILDING BLOG-It takes a lot to turn down a plea offer of probation when facing decades in prison. It takes courage and intestinal fortitude of another magnitude to turn down such a plea offer and go to trial in Broward County, where punishing a defendant for going to trial isn't just a natural result, it's down right fun for the judges and prosecutors who work in Broward. They lurk in the shadows up there, like a Lion in the tall grass, just waiting to pounce on the unsuspecting lawyer/client foolish enough to go to trial. But credit and congratulations are due to David O Markus and Bill Barzee...more »

IN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST

It takes a lot to turn down a plea offer of probation when facing decades in prison.

It takes courage and intestinal fortitude of another magnitude to turn down such a plea offer ana go to trial in Broward County, where punishing a defendant for going to trial isn't just a natural result, it's considered a sport for the judges and prosecutors who work in Broward. They lurk in the shadows up there, like a Lion in the tall grass, just waiting to pounce on the unsuspecting lawyer/client foolish enough to go to trial.But credit and congratulations are due to David O Markus and Bill Barzee who defended a client on multiple charges of aggravated battery and on Thursday were rewarded with a Not Guilty on all counts. Two very sweet words. The Sun Sentinel Article is here.

While David and Bill are superb lawyers, neither of them are old enough to remember the good old days in Broward when your client was rewarded with an acquittal with (we are not making this up) a revocation of their bond, and being remanded to custody, ostensibly to check for open warrants. It happened to us, more than once. And the dialogue went something like this "The jury sir, having found you not guilty, I will adjudicate you not guilty. Congratulations. Your lawyer did a great job. The sheriff is directed to take the defendant into custody for processing. Have a nice day."Eventually, Broward paid a few million dollars in a class action for incarcerating individuals who had just been acquitted (even when you read it, it's hard to believe they actually did it), which just caused a group of judges to revoke your client's bond the day before trial. And on and on it goes. Anyway, a hearty Well Done Mr. Markus and Mr. Barzee. Well Done Indeed!

Sean Taylor Murder Trial: Herald Ace David Ovalle has been tweeting all week the trial of Eric Rivera, the alleged shooter of Sean Taylor. There is no trial today and the rumor is the trial should wrap up next week. Here's a tweet from this week:

Thanks for all the great comments! Feel free to "anonymously" post the name and/or details of your experience with a Family Law Garbage Lawyer(s).

Many divorces involve more than figuring out which spouse gets what property and if and how much one spouse must pay the other in alimony. Often, divorcing parents have disagreements about who should have custody of their children, and like many other divorce issues, it’s usually up to the court to settle the dispute.

The gold standard of any custody decision is what custody arrangements best serve the interests of the child. A determination of what’s best for any particular child requires a case-by-case examination of both the needs of the child and the advantages presented by those seeking custody.

Custody Disputes

Obviously, most custody disputes involve a mother and father at the time of or after a divorce. Occasionally, a custody dispute arises when the parents have never been married. Sometimes, custody disputes involve third parties, usually relatives, seeking custody at the time of the death or incapacity of a parent.

The courts approach these situations in pretty much the same way. They start with a presumption that parents are in the best position to look out for the welfare of their own child. This presumption can be overcome by establishing that a parent isn’t fit or able to best care for the child.

Factors Courts Consider

In making custody decisions based on the best interests of a child, courts look to various factors, usually set out in the state law or case law.

Factors for Parents

The factors courts look at when it comes to the parents include:

Which parent is the most suitable custodian based on character, temperament and stability?

What’s the child’s relationship with each parent?

What’s the educational level of each parent?

What child-rearing skills does each possess?

Does either parent have an illness that may harm the child?

Which parent will provide the best home environment?

Does the child have stronger emotional ties to one or the other parent?

Does the child have special needs that can be better met by one parent over the other?

With whom has the child been living on a regular basis?

What type of extended family relationships exist?

What’s the employment status of each parent?

What’s the financial status of the parties?

What’s each parent’s apparent motive for seeking custody?

Is either parent unfit to have custody? (Drug or alcohol abuse, for example, usually makes a parent “unfit”)

Which parent is the most likely to allow the child a meaningful relationship with the other parent and extended family?

The ability and interest of each parent to provide for the emotional, social, moral, material and educational needs of the child

These factors are not exclusive. A court may also look at where each parent lives, the local school system or a parent’s other relationships. While being unfit to have custody is an automatic disqualifier, the remaining factors are not given the same weight in each case.

A parent seeking custody can’t just look at all the factors, put a check mark in each column where it weighs more in favor of one than the other and then total up the scores. Judges give different weight to each factor in each case.

Factors for the the Child

Some states have lists of factors that focus on the child, rather than the parents, when making a custody decision. Courts may look at some or all of these factors:

The sex and age of the child

The child’s emotional, social, moral, material and educational needs

The respective home environments offered by the parties

The interpersonal relationship between each child and each parent

The interpersonal relationship between each child

The effect on the child of disrupting or continuing an existing custodial arrangement

The report and recommendation of any expert witnesses or other independent investigator

Available custody alternatives

Any other relevant matter the evidence may disclose

Here also, judges give different weight to each factor on a case-by-case basis.

Non-Factors in the Decision

Factors that don’t affect the relationship between the child and the person seeking custody aren’t considered by the courts. For instance, a parent’s sexual orientation usually isn’t a factor considered in child custody disputes.

Next: The Court’s Decision

The Court’s Decision

While some states require a judge to address each legal factor in making a decision, others permit a judge to just state that all factors were in fact considered. In almost all cases, though, the judge will explain which factors weighed the heaviest and the basis for the decision as to who’ll have custody.

Certainly, you and your ex-spouse both love and want what’s best for your child. A bitter custody battle isn’t good for anyone. Avoid the stress and emotional turmoil by remembering that your goal is your child’s well-being. Try working out a fair custody and visitation agreement by taking an objecting look at the same factors the court looks at if your dispute goes to court. You may be surprised to find that there’s no need for a drawn out legal battle at all.

Questions for Your Attorney

Should I wait to get remarried until after my custody dispute is over?

Is it okay to accept a job in another state during a custody dispute?

I just started seeing someone else. Is it okay to date in the middle of a custody dispute?

Now, sadly, the protection of parental rights is left up to individual judges, leaving the door open for abuse.

Did you know…

Children have been taken away from parents who have done nothing wrong.

There is a growing tendency to undermine parental rights and assume someone other than the parent knows best.

Connect with Us and Join the Movement that Unites Parents Across America.

We need to take action now.

The Parental Rights Amendment to the Constitution will protect children by guarding a parent’s rights unless the parents have been proven inadequate. It will solidify in the courts a right Americans have long held dear: the right of parents to raise their children.

It states that: “The liberty of a parent to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their children is a fundamental right,” and that “Neither the United States nor any State shall infringe this right without demonstrating that its governmental interest...is of the highest order and not otherwise served.”

According to a poll by Zogby Polling in 2010, 93.6% of all Americans agree with this statement:

“In general, parents have the constitutional right to make decisions for their children without government interference unless there is proof of abuse or neglect.”

Parents are being refused access to their children's medical information.

Both the Family Educational Right to Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) include ambiguities with a lot of room for interpretation – which means that to protect themselves, both states and private interests have interpreted them in ways that deny parents access to important information about their children.Learn more

Thursday

Parents Without Rights has been around since 1991. It was founded by a group of Rocket Scientists and Engineers on Kennedy Space Center who were outraged to discover that while they were competent to send men and women into outer space, that Florida's Family Courts did not consider them competent to be active Father and Parents, much less have custody of their children, when their marriages failed in divorce.

The Deadbeat Dad Myth: Strategies and Research in Defense of Men In Divorce,

by William N. Bender, Ph.D.

[Unpublished Manuscript, 1992]

Professor of Education - The University of Georgia

The Deadbeat Dad construct is a lie; it is a half-truth which masquerades as a truth, and that is, perhaps, even more dangerous than a lie. The available evidence, presented throughout these chapters, will indicate that the deadbeat dad phenomenon is, like many of the negative images of men presented in our nation's media, almost entirely, a result of a biased court system and an anti­male bias in our society.

Men are not genetically predisposed to abandon their children, nor do they refuse to pay child support specifically in order to hurt their children. Rather men leave a court which, their attorney explained, would be biased against them. The available scientific evidence, presented in this text, documents that anti-male bias. Men have seen their children, their homes, their financial futures stolen from them by that biased court. They are ordered to deny their parental love for their children and become a second-class citizen--i.e., a "visitor" in their child' life. Their human right to actively parent their child is stolen from them--most often without any evidence that they did anything wrong and they are told--inaccurately--that this decision is in the child's best interest. Their money is stolen repeatedly, for the next 20 years as ex-wife support rather than child support (There is never any documentation that those monies go to the child, so many men refuse to call it child support--it is ex-wife support).

Men are angry; indeed men are enraged by this discrimination, and rightfully so. In response to this bias, some men decide to not participate in that system. The best understanding of non-compliance with the current child support system is an understanding of an unorganized non-violent civil disobedience movement, founded almost exclusively on anti-male prejudice in the courts. Some men decide that they simply won't pay. I salute them, and encourage them in their courageous decision.Furthermore this decision is the morally correct one. Men should make that decision. The evidence and rational for this position is presented throughout the text, but a brief introduction is provided here--the theses, if you will. First, the scientific evidence demonstrates that our current child support laws are quite biased. Meyers and Garasky, two government funded researchers, documented in a recent study that child support laws were enforced against men and not against women. In point of fact, even when women are the non-custodial parents, they are rarely ordered to pay any child support at all! On the rare occasion when women are ordered to pay child support, collection efforts are not a vigorous. Clearly, the application and enforcement of these child support laws represent sexist discrimination against men, and they are merely one example.

A related example of the discrimination against men may be found in federal programs for "Families." These programs would include federally funded child support collection programs, "family crisis centers", federal welfare programs (i.e., Aid to Families with Dependent Children), and many non-government programs such as Habitat for Humanity. When men are excluded from families, and the divorce creates financial hardship on all parties concerned, these programs tend to favor the parent with the children. In point of fact, the vast majority of "families" which are assisted by these programs are single parent, maternal custody families; simply put, the automatic discrimination against men at the point of divorce disallows many men from participation in many of these federal and private relief programs. These programs would more accurately be described as "women support programs" rather than "family support programs," and here, as elsewhere, the discrimination against men is apparent for the honest observer.

AFLA Magazine

Why say NO to attorneys in the Legislature?

THE LARGEST CLASS ACTION IN HISTORY

Check it out!

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"So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide. Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none. When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision. When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home." (Tecumseh).

American Fathers Liberation: ALL Men’s Rights are Human Rights. ’nuff said http://bit.ly/1JgMgEm

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We always encourage all parents and extended family to share information about Family Court horrors, or Parental Alienation and its impact on you, your children and family, so that the ripple effect of sharing information and experiences create positive change for other people who are affected or who may be affected in the future.

This blog was viewed over 100,000 times. Comments by visitors, in contrast, were fewer than 600. For the public to be aware of procedural abuses, it has to hear about them. (The blog author’s own story is here.)

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AFLA

Fathers have become undervalued, family structure has become disposable, children suffer without both parents but so often father is left out, seen as nonessential. Let's correct this by bringing attention to it! We're happy to populate the Internet with information that is helpful, supportive, and conducive to fostering father-child relationships, reducing or eliminating Parental Alienation, for the betterment of our children's psychological and emotional health, and for the future health of our families and societies.

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Child Trafficking American Style: How Cash-for-Kids exists and how to Stop It

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